Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:32
Did you get anybody "good" for April Fools? This year, I was too busy, with it being Sunday and all, but I have a great triumph which occurred some time back. A few weeks before this particular April 1, we had had a rat get in the house. Not a mouse - a RAT, roughly the size of a wildebeest. I tried to swat it with a broom, might as well have been with spaghetti. Options were discussed - burning down the house with everything in it seemed extreme. Slightly.
So traps and poison were dutifully placed, and soon peace was restored.
Then came the fateful day. My son, then about 6 or 7, wanted to "get" his mother by telling her he saw another "wildebeest", but I thought a more active approach was called for. He and I were in the kitchen, and she was at the other end of the house, but could see and hear us. I squawked, jumped across the room, grabbed the broom and started swatting the floor. I heard a most satisfying squeal, and saw my bride - as genteel and ladylike person as you could ever want to meet - scrambling as high up on the furniture as humanly possible. If she had had any heart defects, I'm certain I would have been a widower that day. And if she had been naturally vengeful, she would have shortly been on trial for her life, although I'm not sure a jury would have convicted her. Isn't there a "Justifiable Homicide" option?
Actually, I'm pretty sure she's forgiven me, but to be on the safe side, I don't talk about it a lot. When I do, I wisely point out the Forgiveness Clause in our faith, since I'm thinking Divine Intervention is a key factor in my continued safety.
Exaggeration? Yeah, a little bit. But there is a Forgiveness Clause, and a pretty important one at that.
“For if you forgive others their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive you your sins. Matthew 6:14-15, NET Bible
With God, mercy is a two way street. Our "heartedness", whether hard or tender, has a direct correlation to His attitude toward us. That's something definitely worth thinking about this Easter season, no "fooling". See you in church!
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Three Sixteen
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
There were a lot of people who got chills down their back when the numbers for Tebow's Game (Broncos vs. Steelers) came out. 316 yards passing, 31.6 average yards per pass, television rating for the last quarter 31.6. How many of them had been mockingly "Tebowing", joking or complaining about the sincere faith of a young sports hero? They will throw around words like "coincidental" and "unbelievable" to quiet their fears that God might really have helped him win a football game - and maybe He did. Albert Einstein - yes, THAT Albert Einstein - once wrote, "Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous". In this case, I think that "coincidence" was God's way of stripping off the mask and stepping out of the shadows for untold numbers of people.
You may well ask, why would the God of Galaxies be concerned with the outcome of a fleeting sporting event or the success of one player on that Saturday night?
Because there's another statistic that bears mentioning. The day after the Game, the top search item on the internet (some say in the millions) was John 3:16. Millions of people looking for a Bible verse, a particular verse that some of us know as "The Gospel in a Nutshell", a verse that spells out the heart of God for all humanity.
What did they find, those millions? Not religious wordiness. Not theological treatises. Not Commandments or Regulations. They found a Man, telling us about His mission AND the motivation for it.
Why did He come? Because of love. What was His purpose? To give life. Who was it for? Whosoever.
And I just know that when those millions saw that sentence, God's Holy Spirit went to work, giving revelation, drawing with hope, moving toward decision. Will there be people in Heaven because of all this? I will be very surprised if there aren't! The Word of God is powerful, transformational, attractional. Read it at your own risk, because God still speaks, still calls out to the lost, still changes lives.
But what about Tim? Why him of all people? He's not the only - or even the first - religious or Christian player. He's not the most high profile or greatest quarterback. It's simple, really. God put him in the right place at the right time because he was the right man, and God says ...for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. 1 Samuel 2:30
Good job, Tim. I can't wait to see what happens next!
There were a lot of people who got chills down their back when the numbers for Tebow's Game (Broncos vs. Steelers) came out. 316 yards passing, 31.6 average yards per pass, television rating for the last quarter 31.6. How many of them had been mockingly "Tebowing", joking or complaining about the sincere faith of a young sports hero? They will throw around words like "coincidental" and "unbelievable" to quiet their fears that God might really have helped him win a football game - and maybe He did. Albert Einstein - yes, THAT Albert Einstein - once wrote, "Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous". In this case, I think that "coincidence" was God's way of stripping off the mask and stepping out of the shadows for untold numbers of people.
You may well ask, why would the God of Galaxies be concerned with the outcome of a fleeting sporting event or the success of one player on that Saturday night?
Because there's another statistic that bears mentioning. The day after the Game, the top search item on the internet (some say in the millions) was John 3:16. Millions of people looking for a Bible verse, a particular verse that some of us know as "The Gospel in a Nutshell", a verse that spells out the heart of God for all humanity.
What did they find, those millions? Not religious wordiness. Not theological treatises. Not Commandments or Regulations. They found a Man, telling us about His mission AND the motivation for it.
Why did He come? Because of love. What was His purpose? To give life. Who was it for? Whosoever.
And I just know that when those millions saw that sentence, God's Holy Spirit went to work, giving revelation, drawing with hope, moving toward decision. Will there be people in Heaven because of all this? I will be very surprised if there aren't! The Word of God is powerful, transformational, attractional. Read it at your own risk, because God still speaks, still calls out to the lost, still changes lives.
But what about Tim? Why him of all people? He's not the only - or even the first - religious or Christian player. He's not the most high profile or greatest quarterback. It's simple, really. God put him in the right place at the right time because he was the right man, and God says ...for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. 1 Samuel 2:30
Good job, Tim. I can't wait to see what happens next!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)